poniedziałek, 24 października 2016

The situation, when I arrived. RN lines broke the Franco-Spanish lines. My Ships on the down left corner.

From some time few our club members, including myself, collecting 1/1200 Langton Miniatures ships for the battle of Trafalgar. We still about 15 ships short, but that is only temporary. Few days ago we had another anniversary of that one of the decisive battles in human history, so we decided to refight it again. For that purpose Angus hired the Dean Bowling Club for a Sunday and we were able to have a game with most of our ships (we used about 45 ships in total). Army lists and scenario were prepared by Jack Glanville and the whole game was umpired by John Ewing. For the game we used the Kiss Me,Hardy rules from the TFL.

The Royal Navy was played by J.P., Michael Schneider, Angus Konstam, Jack Glanville and Donald Adamson. Derek Hodge together with Chris Henry played the Spaniards and Sandy Gilespie, John Ewing, Campbell Hardie and myself played French.

As I was quite late for the game, arrived on the second part of the game and I cannot give all story behind the game. I take two French ships separate from John's squadron and lead them to battle, however I had to maneuver first against the wind to come back on the battlefield. It took me some time to do it, but finally I managed to fired twice, but without any significant success. The game finished with a British victory, none of the ships were sunk and some of them changed the colors (6 Spanish, 2 French and 1 British). It was great fun and we will repeat it next year with a bigger number of the ships!

piątek, 21 października 2016

Last Thursday I invited Michael to the Dark Age game with Hail Caesar rules. The idea behind that game, was to use all figures from our entire collections. My Norman are much more numerous than Michael's, so he received support of my Vikings. That way all our figures were on the table.

2. The game. Gra.

We started game on both sides of a small river. This time my order dice was against me and soon some of my units crossed the river and some not. That put one of my units of Archers as an easy prey for the Norman cavalry. They charged on them, but my Archers survived and managed to withdraw on my bank of the river.

Now the past hunters become the prey for my cavalry. Outnumbered Normans get slaughtered by my knights. Then my cavalry charged on Vikings. Again the infantry survived the charge, but then came Bill and explained us, that some things we did very wrong. So far I played that rules few times before but I never read them, for Michael it was first time and he did not read them too. After some Bill's advices the game changed dramatically for me...

The main thing in hand to hand clashes is the number of support, which give you bigger number of attack dice. This time my cavalry was outnumbered by the Vikings and soon all my horses were destroyed. The game turn into huge disaster for my army.

Michael encouraged by the Vikings success push his infantry against my infantry and soon he was victorious here too. I only managed to destroy his crossbowmen, but at this stage my army no longer existed as a whole. The battle was over and my army withdraw with a shame.

3. Summary. Podsumowanie.

It was great game with the Hail Caesar rules. We will continue to enlarge your armies and soon we will come back to the rules again. However before next game, we will have to read the rules. From the other point of view I was able to use all my Dark Age figures, which I am happy with. So my golden rule in wargaming is achieved. That rule is to use all my figures and models in game at least once. So I did it!

wtorek, 18 października 2016

Last Thursday in our club, we had another Battlegroup Fall of the Reich game. I was asked for that game by Alan. This time I prepared the game for the 300 points only, to better get him through the rules. I have used the scenario "End of Rat Race" from the supplement.

2. The game. Gra.

The "End of Rat Race" scenario is quite tricky for the Allied player, because it force him to think about the strategy for the whole game, before the game get started. That is because his troops enter the table in column and in particular order, which can not be changed till the end of the game.

This time Alan was a little late for the game, so we used one of our club member, who this time want to remain unknow, let call him Friedrich. He was responsible for the initial German set up. First he rolled very low (double 1!), so I asked him to do it again and believe or not he rolled 1 and 2! So there was no excuses, he had to put 3 units on table. He did it very wise. He chose Panther tank and two MG teams. He put them all in ambush fire. Splendid!

Then the Soviets enter the table. I was expecting the Panther will be put just behind the road blockade and put the Recce troops in front of my column and behind them all my SU guns. As I was expected he allowed my Recce forces take cover in woods and put his all attention on my guns. I can only tell, that soon all of them were converted in wrecks. What can I do against the Panzer Ace Panther tank?

Then Alan arrived and he took control over the Germans. We slowly started bringing our troops on the table and both started mortar each other. My shoots were much more accurate, as Alan forget to spread his forces. that caused him a lot of pins and that gave him a lot of counters. He forgot about crap German morale during that period...

The scenario forced me to the be very aggressive. I had to push my forces forward, what also cost me with a lot of counters. Finally I was only one point behind my morale would collapse and then I noticed the opportunity for me. My last soldier from the Recce unit, those with panzerfaust, was very close to the German tank. I took my chance and fired. Lucky for me it get hit and soon the tank exploded! German morale collapsed and I won the game!

3. Summary. Podsumowanie.

Alan was quite happy with the game. The rules seems to be quite understand for him. He still has some struggle with the creating his forces (the point system, what should be in and what not), but we will take care about it very soon. He is young and learnt it very quickly. Next games with the Battlegroup system will be very soon.

piątek, 7 października 2016

Last Thursday I had another introduction game with By Fire and Sword rules. This time I showed it to both Michaels. One of them (Michael S.) had the opportunity to play that rules before, but mostly because of the game chaos, to many people around the game, he never get the rules correctly. This time the game was smaller, with less troops, everything better to learn the rules. I'm sorry, but this time only few pictures from the game (dome with my tablet), as my camera battery charger get broke and I await for a new one. It should arrive next week, I hope.

1. Forces. Siły.

To the known from the rulebook way the creating the armies I added my House rule. After every point level, there is a D10 test. On 6-10 the one can go higher on 1-5 cannot. This is how I created our armies (on Polish Lithuanian Skirmish Force (1653-57) example). I started with the Colonel. Upgraded them to 3 orders. Then I use the basic 4 banners with Cossack Style Cavalry (2 of 3 bases and 2 of 2 bases). Then upgraded the 2 bases Cossacks into 3 bases and then convert one banner of Cossack into Dragoons. After that to move of another level I had to made a roll. I rolled 4 so no more upgrades. The same way I created the Swedish army. So the outcome was:

2. The game. Gra.

We all moved our forces fast forward to take the objectives (we played the first scenario form the book). However Michaels moved only into the central, when I moved to take the central and the left on my side. When they were still busy with moving their forces I use the opportunity to charge with my big Cossack unit (I joined two banners into one big) and charged on the Reiter company. As they had the movement order, cannot react on that charge and soon been forced to flee. During the chase, my Cossacks contacted with Reiters with arquebusiers, who also had movement order. This time it finished only with disorganised Reiters.

Michael S. managed to rally his Reiters and prepared his company against my possible second charge, which occurred, of course. This time it wasn't so easy for my Cossacks. From Reiters fire in charge, they lost a base, but during the melee my Cossacks once again proved their value. Another Reiter company was forced to flee.

Completely different situation was in the centre. My smaller Cossack Style banner charged on Musketeers. This time my Cossacks has been pushed back and forced to flee by accurate fire of their muskets supported by the gun fire. That moment of glory finished after the second Reiter company was forced to flee. Now the Musketeers were surrounded. They went off the hill (!) and prepared themselves against the Cossack charge. This time the whole Swedish company was destroyed during the fight. That finished the game.

I just finished reading the rules. After the first game my opinion about the game was not enthusiastic as the game was sometimes a chaos. Now I read them and finally can said a little more about this. The rules are divided into three parts: the basic rules, an optional rules and appendices. So let start from the beginning.

1. Basic rules. Zasady podstawowe.

The very interesting is an engine of the rules. It uses the single D10, so everyone who used to use a bucket of dice can be surprised. The game divided sides on side A and side B and depending on side it executes different orders during the turn. The turn started with A moving and then rally their forces and then B is able to fires defensive fire and so on. This is put in a very logical order. I really like that part, it gives something new to the rules not only A does all actions and then B does their actions.

Every unit has it starting Fatigue Score. It is the number of the fatigues the unt can score, before it become destroyed. Unit can receive fatigues as the effect of firing, melee, forced movement, lost of the friendly units etc. So it is more the morale level of the unit, than unit's casualties. The number of fatigues define an unit's abillity for shooting and also for executing the orders etc., so it is very important to keep that level very low. So the very important in the game are the commanders, who can rally, inspire and lead the units. We have three levels of the commanders: Brigade, Divisional and Army. Depends of the level they are able to inflict the units. So this part is done very well too.

Units shoots with a roll against their present fatigue score. So for example the units fatigue starting score is 8 and it has already 2 fatigues it is rolling against 6 etc. It need to score below or equal that number to inflict fatigue. In the same way works the melee. We only roll one dice. The only issue I have it is the arc of fire, which is only in front of the unit against usually 45°.

The game recognise the four types of units: infantry, cavalry, artillery and commanders. Every units depend of its type and formations can move a number of movement segments. For example for infantry one movement segment is 6'' and for cavalry 12''. We also can change our unit formation and it has it cost in movement segments too.

The basic rules can be played to the most of the conflicts of the black powder era (18th and 19th century), even if the authors states that not. The things, that put the rules into Napoleonic period only are the optional rules.

2. The optional rules. Zasady opcjonalne.

That is the Napoleonic taste, that Angus was talking about. Now we can divide our armies into two systems: the French and the Prussian. It will affect our maneuvering of our units, shooting abilities and command. Also it brings few more factors, like weather, which could affect our units. I don't want to write to much about it, as do not show the ideas of the authors. But with that rules the game became much more interesting.

3. Appendices. Dodatki.

There is several appendices, which are: the game creator, characteristics of the main players during the Napoleonic wars, the army creator, historical formations and deployments for the main players, scale calculator as the game is design for 28mm and how to convert it for different scales, a War of 1812 in America appendix and finally the all armies statistics. All appendices are very helpful, except the army statistics. The main armies are done very well, but the smallest players are not done very well. For example Duchy of Warsaw can use the Cuirassiers during the 3rd and 4th coalition, when the only unit of Polish cuirassiers (14th Regiment of Cavalry) was formed in 1809! There is more of that, especially the fatigue levels of few units should be recalculated.

4. Summary. Podsumowanie.

The Over the Hills rules came as the competitive rules for the Black Powder and possible will not overtake the leading position, but a very interesting step into Napoleonic wargaming. Overal I really like the rules and I think that I will change my prime selection for that period. However, few thing need to be changed like the arc of fire, the small army statistics and some other minor things. Some of the ideas of authors should be highlighted: the turn sequence and the units morale with the fatigue system. Those two are the strongest points of the rules. In score of 1 to 10 (when 10 is the absolutely brilliant) I gave them strong 8.

sobota, 1 października 2016

Last Thursday in our club we had another meeting with Soldiers of God rules. This time, for the first time we try the siege rules. I was very happy with the rules so far and I was very curious, how it will work with siege, especially so far I did not met good rules, which would be able to deal with this subject. For the game we used the 10mm collection of castle and toys from JP.

1. Forces. Siły.

This time it will be without flags, as the JP's collection is quite mixed of various nations. Jack put the action somewhere in Eastern Europe, but I will stay without clearly sides. We had the castle defended by Jack and Angus Konstam and they had 3 units of infantry, a heavy and light cavalry and the bombarda, also they had the barrels full of hot oil, but they forgot to use them... Against them was an army lead by JP (2 heavy cavalries, three infantry units, 2 siege towers and a battering ram) supported by Campbell Hardie (2 light cavalry and 2 units of crossbows) and me (three units of infantry, 1 siege tower and a battering ram).

2. The game. Gra.

Our forces almost without the problems reach the walls, I only lost a battering ram hit by lucky shot of Angus's bombarda. Then without any problems we climb on the walls and the real fight begins. My forces did not break through Angus's defends mostly because of Jack's experience with the rules, who save his fellow morale many times by burning their orders cards. Also Campbell's attack has not been fully successful as the defenders were safe behind the thick castle walls.

So the game decided on JP's side. This time his dice were against him. He reach the walls very quickly, but then the problems begins. First one of his infantry units get broke then he lost a lot of time to finally broke the gate with his ram. Finally when he broke through his cavalry get massacred by Jack's cavalry. Our morale dropped to a very low level and ultimately we lost the game.

3. Summary. Podsumowanie.

I can said that Soldiers of God did very well with the siege. It is very well balanced and did not put any of the side as the superior one. Of course the defenders have the advantage of the walls, but it is quite resonable played. So far I can said that SoG pass the test and are my favourite if we are talking about medieval sieges.